The Select Committee To Investigate Benghazi May Be Falling Apart

[applegrove]

The Select Committee To Investigate Benghazi May Be Falling Apart

by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/26/benghazi-committee_n_6551460.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

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WASHINGTON -- From the Department of Predictable Outcomes: The House select committee investigating the 2012 attacks on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, appears to be falling apart.

At issue are two complaints from committee Democrats. The first is that they have been systematically excluded from at least five witness interviews, and only discovered that Republicans had conducted those interviews after the fact through press reports. The second complaint is the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), is downplaying or disregarding interview testimony that contradicts assumptions about the night of the attacks.

The complaints, laid out in a letter from the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), come as the committee is to hold a public hearing Tuesday on the status of records requests related to the attacks. One of the Democrats on the committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), told CQ Roll Call in an interview that it might be time for Democrats to consider leaving the committee altogether. A top Democratic aide said members still planned to attend the meeting on Tuesday, but would use the occasion to amplify the concerns expressed in Cummings’ letter, below.



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[jimlup]

1. Democrats should have never agreed to do this in the first place

I guess it is perhaps better to have some of your own people on the committee if it is what we knew it was - a witch hunt. Still I think that the right position might have been to refuse to participate in the witch hunt.

[Jim Lane]

2. I'm sure they're not enjoying the waste of time but it's good that they're there.

Consider this, from the OP: "The second complaint is the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), is downplaying or disregarding interview testimony that contradicts assumptions about the night of the attacks."

If the Democrats were boycotting the proceedings, they wouldn't know about such testimony. They also wouldn't be able to complain that they'd been excluded from interviews.

Yes, the testimony the Republicans want to ignore is probably just a duplication of testimony that one of the other investigative committees already heard. Still, it will be more effective if the Democrats are in a position to file a minority report, pointing out how this very committee heard evidence that it chooses to ignore, for partisan reasons.

I think the Democrats serving on this latest farce of a committee are taking one for the team. I applaud them.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Is there no end to the perfidy of Benghazi? It continues to wreak havoc, even on the committee set

to investigate it!

Benghazi-fashion, Benghazi has reached through time and space to destroy the very investigative body looking to get to the bottom of Benghazi!

We must convene another Benghazi committee to determine how come Benghazi has not satisfactorily Benghazi'd.